Mainstay Industries Fade,
But Region Shrugs It Off

Textiles, tobacco, furniture. That triumvirate of industries, which led North Carolina for decades, remains in various stages of retreat. So why isn't the state's economy falling off a cliff?

After all, says First Union Corp. economist Mark Vitner, those industries have been every bit as important to North Carolina's vigor as oil was to Texas, or defense contractors to California. Yet North Carolina has escaped the devastation that...